New to tanking, nervous and looking for Tips.

So, I've got a Blackmage at 50, A Whitemage at 42 and a few other DPS at varying levels. Now I have decided I want to give tanking a go and have settled on a Gladiator. I was hoping that you guys here on the forums could offer any advice on how to tank. I am on the Ps4 and am using the Controller due to the awkwardness of how the ps4 handles a mouse. Thanks in advance!

Use plenty of Flash to keep aggro on groups. If it's more than 2 mobs, Flash spam the hell out of them and recover your mana with Riot Blade. If it's 1-2 mobs, use your aggro combo on them while switching targets.

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Originally Posted by Deadz3d

So, I've got a Blackmage at 50, A Whitemage at 42 and a few other DPS at varying levels. Now I have decided I want to give tanking a go and have settled on a Gladiator. I was hoping that you guys here on the forums could offer any advice on how to tank. I am on the Ps4 and am using the Controller due to the awkwardness of how the ps4 handles a mouse. Thanks in advance!

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For Paladin keep in mind two things. Flash is King... and you don't hafta finish combos on the same mob, switching mobs can help even out DPS for mobs being AOE'd. Also for low levels, marking is helpful.

Tanks don't really come into their own until they get their Enmity multiplier, which for Paladin is lv 40 i.e Shield Oath. Like I said, marking helps alot when you start out. Then when you get the hang of it, you won't care who hits what.

If you have hate problems, you can always put your skill points into strength without it hurting much of anything.

You'll learn how to effectively keep hate on your mobs by getting in and learning it, but a couple of tips I can give to aspiring tanks is to just have an awareness of whats going in the dungeon. There are so many other aspects of being a good tank besides just keeping hate. Take a look at your party so you can get an idea of what things you should pay attention to. If you have a BLM or WHM, remember they both have sleep abilities. So if they are sleeping mobs, don't attack them. If you have a bard, scholar, ninja, or summoner, they have placed aoes like shadowflare and doton. So if they are used, pull the mobs into them. I see so many tanks tunneling or just not caring when these skills are used and just go to waste. If you have melee, try to keep the mobs still so your dps can hit postional attacks more easily. Use your defensive cooldowns whenever you can to ease your healers and allow your skilled healers to dps to speed things up. Get into the practice of facing all enemies away from the party. Not all enemies will cleave the group, but its just good practice. So like I said, just pay attention to whats going on around you and you'll do great.

use flash. a lot. and not a little bit a lot. a lot, a lot. like 3-4 times on any pull. adjust as you see necessary though.

use fight or flight to boost threat generation of your threat combo

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Originally Posted by Delorean

use flash. a lot. and not a little bit a lot. a lot, a lot. like 3-4 times on any pull. adjust as you see necessary though.

use fight or flight to boost threat generation of your threat combo

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I found that flash, 1-2-3combo, flash seems to be pretty solid when I was leveling. But I started with WAR, so I tend to try to use physical attacks for Enmity as much as posible, which would have me do something like...

Mob 1 - 1-2combo
Mob 2 - 3 combo
Mob 3 - 1-2combo
Mob 1 - 3 Combo, etc. And I'd just flash to start.

Marking works pretty well too early on, but eventually it'll be unnecessary.

Shield lob on the pull.

3+ mobs: flash flash flash, riot blade combo, flash, repeat

2 mobs just flash a couple of times to get initial aggro then tab between them doing Halone combos.

Once you get a bit more confident about how much threat you can hold on multiple mobs, you might want to start flashing less and tab-comboing more, but early on it's hard to hold decent aggro on more than one mob at a time, and at least in low levels DPS usually don't have much in the way of AOE so your main problem will be keeping ahead of the healer, as healing generates aggro against all enemies.

Flash doesn't deal damage, and the blind debuff is reduced if you spam it too quickly.

If you're using it a lot, try to work on reducing how much you use it (as you grow more comfortable).

Having a billions time more hate than dps/healers doesn't achieve anything. As long as you're a couple ticks above them on the enmity meter, it's the same thing.

What about cooldown usage. Any tips on those since paladins get so many?

use them when you think you are going to take a lot of damage

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Originally Posted by Deadz3d

What about cooldown usage. Any tips on those since paladins get so many?

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Pre-50, you can use them pretty much any time you like. Ideally you use them when your about to get hit with something big. Generally those sort of attacks are followed with a cast bar.

But dungeons are pretty easy content to tank comparatively, because their objective is less about challenging you and more about teaching you.

Usually, you only need to use one of the cooldowns at a time, then you can rotate your skills between pulls. Use more when big pulls.
For speedrun, you can use hallowed ground on first big pull, then you will have hg again at the end of instance for last group of mobs.
You need cross-skill from warrior, and you need to know which defensive cd is suitable for which situation.
For example, Bulwark increase block rate, you can only block frontal attacks, so keep mobs in same direction, and you can't block magics. Foresight increase your status directly, etc.
Read skill notes and try them. And if mobs have long-range skills, you will notice they do not move if they can attack you already, so it would be better to tank everything near the ranger, thus you can flash everything instead moving between two position or even deal with healer ot.

Some skills have real good synergy when used together, but you don't want to burn too many at once as that'll leave you naked later in the fight.

This is a contrast of Pld and War. War can react to incoming damage, where as Pld is more about preparing for it.

Tempered Will gets looked over a lot. Don't forget you have a free heavy/bind removal with that skill. (And it prevents knockbacks)

Since you've started as a BLM, you will now be on the receiving end of the stick when it comes to managing hate as BLMs and BRDs are one of the main hate rippers among tanks. You even have to resort into doing Flash + Fast Blade + Flash + Riot Blade, rinse and repeat, so that you are assured that when you have a raging BLM and BRD on your party, they won't grab aggro away from you.

Keep in mind your flash enmity is primarily based on weapon damage, ... keep your weapon up to date

1) Keep yourself well geared, get drops and buy from merchants if there is stuff stronger than what you have.
2) Pull with shield lob, face pulls are messy.
3) When you got ranged mobs, shield lob the ranged, run to it and apply flash when you get near to get the melee mobs on you.
4) Cycle through the mobs to see their agro from time to time, sometimes your dps is doing aoe or targeting another mob, be better than them.
5) Don´t use flash on single target mobs, people will judge you for it.
6) There is no formula for aoe agro, you should produce enough to keep them off the healer and for DPS to cycle dots.
7) Don´t overspam flash just to lose agro on main target, people will judge you for it.
8) You dictate the rhythm and the route, but that doesn't mean you can't ask your group what they prefer instead of being a diva.

The biggest one I haven't seen here is to tell people in the dungeon you're new or its your first time running a dungeon. This can go very far and people will know to take it easy on DPS and not jump on you so quickly.

Also, take note not only of the red flashing squares and other shapes meaning you don't have aggro but also pay attention to the white bars directly under your party members class symbol in your party list. This is a gauge of how close they are in threat to you on the mob you have targeted. The more full it is, they closer they are to ripping the mob from you. I like to charge up my halone combo, flash while I cycle through mobs to find what mob needs some love and smack that one with the charged halone.

Like it's been stated, in dungeons, don't necessarily save your cool downs for scary moments, making the healers job easier throughout the dungeon is almost always better.Last thing that I do differently as a tank (also have a 50 WHM and 50 BRD) is to watch a guide for new content. Usually only a 5 minute breakdown to get a loose feel of what to expect. It always helps immensely. Telling someone you're new but have watched a guide is very helpful.

I also tank on ps4 (usually using my Vita on remote play) and a tip for that if you didn't already know is to enable the enhanced crossbar (not exactly sure of the name). This gives you another 8 slots for holding r2 and then holding l2 and another 8 for holding l2 then holding r2. You can also set these to display the same 8 slots if you wish for less complications.

Sorry for the wall and any misspellings (I'm on my mobile) but I hope I was able to help!

What are cool downs? and how do you use them? And what stats do you focus on as well becoming a pali and then a warrior?

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Originally Posted by NinoL

What are cool downs? and how do you use them? And what stats do you focus on as well becoming a pali and then a warrior?

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Cooldowns are moves with a recast time longer than 2.5s (your Global Cooldown (GCD)). As an example, the first move you get as Gladiator is Fast Blade, that sits on the GCD and can be used every 2.5s. The next move you get is Rampart, which sits on a 90s recast time and can be used whenever as long as it's available. Rampart is a defensive CD, which means it increases your survivability - in this specific CDs case, it reduces your damage taken by 10% (later becomes 20% with a Trait). There's also offensive CDs, like Fight or Flight (Increases physical damage dealt by 30%) which you get at lvl 6. When you want to use what is pretty self explanatory once you start tanking - you want to use offensive CDs whenever they're available, and defensive ones when you know you're about to take damage that needs to be mitigated. Early on, defensive CDs are just used to mitigate regular damage, but later on there are mechanics bosses use to hit you for big damage and you'll want to save your CDs for those.

Your main stats as WAR and PLD are VIT and STR. You're given 30 total attribute points to freely put into whatever stat you want, but you basically want to either split between VIT and STR or pick one to put all your points into. VIT will give you more health, STR will give you more aggro/damage. Figure out what you think you'll need more of and use your points for that. I'd recommend going 30 STR and using VIT or STR accessories, but there's nothing wrong with going 30 VIT.

Thanks. I think that's more than enough. I'm kinda nervous but with the info you jus gave me, I'm sure i'll be successful. Here I go...watch out marlboro!!! Here comes the most promising newb tank yet!!! Just be patient wit me tho....

I guess my last question, since everyone has been quite helpful and thorough, is anyone have any Ps3/4 specific tips or tricks. Targeting and/or targeting filters, Crossbar Set-ups, anything else that may be of interest. Anything at all is greatly appreciated. ;)

You have gotten a lot of good tips here. But as far as defensive cooldowns go here is some advice that has worked for me. At the beggining of a fight once you have the first round of enmity and mobs are attacking after flashing I usually pop my Fight or Flight. This increases your damage for a short period. I then begin to cycle through all targets using my enmity chain. This helps to grab a solid hold on mobs. Once Fight or flight expires I will pop Rampart because by that time mobs will be inflicting a decent amount of damage and I want to be as easy on the healer as possible. Once rampart wears off and if the healer is having issues keeping up with damage I will then pop Convalescence. This increases the amount of healing that you receive for a short time. Usually by the time that wears off if I even need it at all the fight is done. I am still a nub but this has helped me through the learning curve and successfully tank anything I have tried.

My only advice is that pressing L1 + Up/Down will make it so that you can cycle through targets in your emnity list in order. Similar to party member targeting.

Hold hate. Stay alive (manage CD) tank as if your healer is more of a backup. You are the tank, you lead the battle, its your decision. If dps wants to pull for you, you decide if you want them to. If you don't, just let them die and take hate. They will learn the hard way. Watch your aggro meter. Watch the healers MP and base your DCD rotation on their healing skills. Being able to make split second decision makes a great tank. Communicate with your PT. Make lot's of macros. Oh, and you with find out really quick that people like to runs away from the fight when they accidentally take hate. lol just run to the tank, flash, flash tank and spank.